Friday marks the 100th Anniversary of an incredibly tragic event in Illinois history.

The Cherry Mine fire, ignited November 13, 1909 and took more than 250 lives.
This weekend, the small town in Bureau County is honoring its' citizens' sacrifice.

Today Cherry's population is about 500.

Mini–mountains of slag are the backdrop for young residents skateboarding on the main drag.

The slag piles are stone and shale leftover from Cherry's boom days as a mining town.

In the early 1900's, Cherry had 2000 residents, a melting pot of immigrants.

Most were employees of the St. Paul Cole Company.

They worked deep underground– earning a $1.08 per ton of coal they brought to the surface.

"People worked in pairs back then. Two guys working all day could mine about 5 tons of coal. –$5.40 between two men. So you could see why brother worked with brother. –Father with son," said author and Cherry Mine expert Steve Stout.

In 1909, the Cherry mine was considered the safest in the county.
It had electricity. But the power was out in early November.
The company had gone back to kerosene lanterns and open torches for underground illumination.

A torch ignited a load of hay for the mules in the mine, and quickly spread.

Workers were incinerated or suffocated.

It took a week to extinguish the fire.

Days later, old photos show smoke still pouring out of the main shaft.

A group of 21 men in the deepest part of the mine entombed themselves, wrote letters to loved ones, and waited to die.

"I hope they will not forget their father. I will bid you all good–bye and God bless you all. George Eddie" reads the end of one letter.

"The amazing part of the story to me is that they only had lights, candles, matches for the very first few minutes they were in that dark deep hole. –500 feet below ground. –Miles away from the nearest exit. And they sat there and waited for help. They ate their shoes. They ate their belts. They ate pieces of their clothing!" said Stout.

After 8 days, the group broke down their barrier and crawled along the mine floor rails to the main shaft.

"Word shot up to the surface again that miners were found alive. Miners were found alive! The whole town of Cherry came running once more to the company yard looking for some of the 300 people that were missing at the time. So you can imagine the heart break that must have set in so strong again when the number realized saved was so small," said Stout.

At a cemetery on the south end of Cherry, many of the disasters victims are buried. –Including a young man, Joseph Mokos. He was only 13.

Under public pressure, the company paid families who had lost their breadwinner an average of $1,800.00.

And new legislation followed.

"Workers compensation laws. A lot of our safety laws are here because of the magnitude of the tragedy that happened. And it really awoke the consciousness that we needed safety laws and we needed compensation for people that were injured on the job," said Mike Matejka, a Labor Organizer based in Bloomington.

This Saturday, the community will unveil a new monument dedicated to the lives lost underground.

"Not so much today, but if you go back 30 or 40 years, a lot of people were still here that were involved with the mine.
And it is just important for families to remember this," said Cherry Mayer Bob McCook.

The unveiling of the new monument is scheduled for 1:00 Saturday afternoon on the main drag next to the village hall.